A bottle carrier is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,633,962 having individual frames, in the form of split collars, supported within a larger frame. A skirt member, including a retaining loop, is provided for attachment to a bottle carrier, and is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,468. U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,094 illustrates a bottle carrier in common use wherein a molded plastic sheet of relatively uniform thickness contains segmental inwardly extending flexible lip member carried in individual bottle sections. A skirt in the form of a sheet member depends from the bottle receiving sections. This latter device has the disadvantage of obscuring the bottles contained within the package while making bottle removal somewhat difficult. The other patented carriers possess a disadvantage in that it is difficult to place the bottle within the carrier because failure to present the bottles in proper alignment with the collars during the forcing of the bottles into the receiving collars results in the collars hanging up with consequent damage and insufficient retension of the bottles.
Accordingly, it is an important object of this invention to provide a unitary plastic bottle carrier wherein the necks of the bottles may be readily inserted even when alignment between the bottes and the individual receiving sections is not perfect, and which will also facilate removal of the bottle while affording adequate bottle retension during handling of the bottle package.
Another important object of the invention is the provision of an inexpensive bottle holder which will not obscure the upper portions of the bottles while facilitating insertion and removal of the bottles from the bottle holder.